Edit Review: Frontier Design Group AlphaTrack and PreSonus FaderPort

Many experienced engineers have become comfortable mixing inside the box with nothing but a mouse, but if you would find it helpful to have at least one hardware fader associated with your DAW, the Frontier Design Group AlphaTrack''s multiple encoders access many of the features of your DAW.

The revolutionary aspect of the emergence, rise, and eventual domination of the digital audio work station is hard to exaggerate. From the days of Frank, Elvis, and the Beatles, the image of an engineer possessing the magical ability to control equipment that made sense to none but a select few governed the public's perception of what making a record was all about.

Suddenly, all of the tools — the tape deck, mixer, and effects processors — were wrapped into a package that lived inside an off-the-shelf computer, at the fingertips of almost anyone curious enough to put them to work. Predicting how the consumer base for these products would develop — and which elements of the old technologies they would cling to — proved to be an inexact science, however.

Many audio-industry insiders were surprised at how quickly the mixing console became an unnecessary relic, even for many mixing and tracking engineers with decades of experience behind a board. Of course, large-scale hardware consoles with 96 inputs (or more) and dozens of faders have not faded away; they are used consistently in top-ticket audio post rooms, in recording studios, and on the road as a key element in sound-reinforcement systems.

Nonetheless, more and more bread-and-butter work and a surprising number of visible projects are being executed in the project studio. Many engineers — including quite a few with decades of experience — became comfortable mixing inside the box with nothing but a mouse to control volume rides, pans, sends, and other tasks that were previously controlled by hardware. Still, many engineers — including you, perhaps — would find it helpful to have at least one hardware fader associated with their DAW, particularly one that's rugged and inexpensive. This month, we'll take a look at two such devices: Frontier Design Group AlphaTrack and PreSonus FaderPort.

Frontier Design Group (FDG) was formed in 1996 by Barry Braksick and Charlie Hitchcock, a couple of guys who understood that the audio world would require new tools to help engineers interface with developing technology. AlphaTrack, the company's newest hardware product, runs on all of the main software platforms (Apple Soundtrack Pro, Digidesign Pro Tools, Propellerhead Software Reason, Steinberg Nuendo, etc.).

I tested AlphaTrack on a dual-core AMD Opteron PC running Steinberg Cubase 4. Interfacing the device was simple; the software recognized its presence immediately. All I had to do to get started with AlphaTrack was select it as a remote device, at which point the unit's default operations were in effect.

AlphaTrack is a nifty-looking device. Approximately 8"×5", it will sit nicely on a desk, or wherever else you need to place it for easy access. Next to the single 100mm motorized fader, which has an excellent feel, sit four buttons. The top three — record, solo, and mute — perform those functions. The shift button allows AlphaTrack to double the number of parameters that its encoders (more about them in a minute) control.

At the bottom of the unit, you'll find the touch strip — an excellent innovation and one of AlphaTrack's most unique features. It allows you to scroll through your project's timeline slowly, rapidly, or by markers you've set up, using one or two fingers or by tapping on the touch-strip surface.

Just above the touch strip are transport controls that supplant the software versions you'll find in all DAWs. Once again, the controls function in multiple ways. Hold down the fast-forward button, and you'll scoot along the timeline. Depress the shift button, and you'll be taken to the end of your project immediately. It must be pointed out, however, that FDG is to an extent hostage to both the limitations of the MIDI spec and to each DAW manufacturer's implementation of it. I experienced some problems within Cubase 4 that FDG's tech support could not duplicate or explain. For example, I initially set a test project to have a loop of nine bars. Holding down the end and shift buttons took me to the ninth bar, as expected. I then reset the project to have a loop length of 777 bars. For some reason, AlphaTrack didn't take the change into account, and it kept moving to the ninth bar when I had asked it to go to the end of the project.

The three encoder knobs sit on top of the AlphaTrack's main work area. They work in conjunction with five selector buttons (pan, send, EQ, plug-in, and automation) to give the user a great deal of control over a DAW's functionality. The time you spend getting familiar with the relationships between the encoders and these buttons is well-spent, but in reality, many — if not most — users fail to exploit devices such as the AlphaTrack to their full potential because they take a bit of study to master. Don't be one of them.

The Flip button lets you use the fader to control functions other than level adjustment. The default swap is to pan mode, but you can choose almost any of your DAW's main features instead. Becoming familiar with both the Flip and Switch buttons — and in particular, the way they interact with the Flip and shift buttons and the encoders — is critical to getting the most out of AlphaTrack.

Giving the user access to the maximum amount of a DAW's features, while minimizing the number of hardware controllers to keep the cost down, is a daunting task — particularly when a manufacturer has to make the device work with several dozen (or more) pieces of software. FDG has done an excellent job with AlphaTrack.

The PreSonus FaderPort controller provides a straightforward design that supplements keyboard and mouse control for a handful of DAW functions.

Like AlphaTrack, the FaderPort (7"×5.24") offers Mackie HUI-emulation support. Mackie got into the game of providing a hardware controller for DAWs early on, and later entrants piggybacked, modifying Mackie's work to suit their purposes. There are limitations, however (HUI emulation won't access a DAW's redo function, for example), so you'll get more out of these devices if you use the plug-in that's been created specifically for the software you use. At this time, PreSonus offers Mac users only the HUI-emulation mode; the company is at work on native drivers, which currently are available for PC applications only.

FaderPort ships with a separate 9V power supply. Your host computer''s USB connection provides enough power to run FaderPort, but one feature requires its own source of power—a single 100mm Alps fader that physically moves during playback.

Once again, I tested the FaderPort with Cubase 4; PreSonus is working to provide drivers for all of the major host applications, but it doesn't yet support Cubase LE or SE versions. FaderPort surface lays out its functions in a manner that will be instantly familiar to anyone who has worked with the physical controls of a mixer, or their software equivalents. As with AlphaTrack, certain functions are controlled by executing buttons in combination. For example, you turn the metronome on and off by holding down the shift and transport buttons simultaneously. There are, however, far fewer of these combinations assigned to the FaderPort than to the AlphaTrack. Similar to AlphaTrack, FaderPort comes with a default set of combinations, and it's easy to customize the commands of either device to suit your specific workflow. For instance, if you don't need to turn the metronome on and off, but you do need to go back to marker 7 in your project repeatedly, you can swap out the commands in the device-setup page of your host application.

FaderPort ships with a separate 9V power supply. Your host computer's USB connection provides enough power to run FaderPort, but one feature requires its own source of power — a single 100mm Alps fader that physically moves during playback. This functionality can be extremely helpful when you're touching up automation and want to move the fader at a given point from its exact location during an earlier pass. Incidentally, the PreSonus documentation says that the fader has a resolution of 1,024 steps, but this level of detail is only possible if your DAW has the bit-addressing capability to access it. Marketspeak aside, the only question worth considering is whether or not a fader executes the ride smoothly, and this one does.

I understand why PreSonus decided to limit the amount of hardware it attached to the FaderPort and the number of functions it can access. It would be nice, however, if the unit's rotary encoder could be used in place of a scrub wheel.

It's nice to see the low end of the DAW market getting attention, and both of these products pack a nice bang for the buck. If you'd like to add a compact controller that digs deep inside your DAW to your studio — and you're prepared to deal with the possibility that you'll experience MIDI glitches such as those I encountered — AlphaTrack is logical choice. On the other hand, if you're comfortable working with a mouse and keyboard for most of your work — and only need to supplement them with a device that handles the transport and a handful of other functions, provides a fader, and is uncomplicated and less likely to present MIDI-related problems — FaderPort may be the way to go. Either way, if you're in the market for an inexpensive DAW controller, you can't go wrong with these devices.

Company: Frontier Design Group www.frontierdesign.com

Product: AlphaTrack

Assets: Elegant design, multiple encoders control many features of your DAW, excellent value.

Caveats: Concept stretches the limits of the MIDI spec, some features may not work as advertised in all DAWs at this time.

Demographics: Audio engineers who want to supplement control of their DAW functions.

PRICE: $249

Company: PreSonus www.presonus.com

Product: FaderPort

Assets: Straightforward, rock-solid operation, excellent value.

Caveats: None, with the understanding that this device does not attempt to cover all of the functions of your DAW.

Demographics: Audio engineers who want to supplement control of their DAW functions.

PRICE: $229

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